1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved dispensing system for a package of a continuous, severable sheet material comprising a number of individual members severable from each other.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Dispensers for rolled-up materials, such as paper articles and plastic bags, are known in the art. These dispensers suffer from certain drawbacks, also well recognized in the art. For example, the dispensers are normally employed to dispense a material which requires an expensive device to assist in the separation of the rolled-up material from the roll, or which requires the employment of the user's two hands to sever the rolled-up material from the roll. Thus, Finkelstein, U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,573, discloses a dispenser for a rolled-up material, wherein the dispenser wall or walls adjacent to the circumference of the roll of the material inside the dispenser are provided with a first aperture through which the material, unwindable from the outside of the cylindrical wall, can be withdrawn from the dispenser. The dispenser also contains a second aperture in the wall adjacent to an end face of the wound-up roll through which the material unwindable from the inside of the roll can be drawn from the dispenser.
Barnett, U.S. Pat. No. 3,718,251, discloses a container for rolled goods, such as plastic bags, wherein the bags are removed from the roll through an opening in the container. The bags are removed by unwinding them from the outside of the roll.
Ritchie, U.S. Pat. No. 2,864,495, discloses a paper product roll dispenser comprising a container containing in one end wall portion thereof a centrally located removable portion defining an access to the container. A roll of paper product material, such as facial tissue, hand towels or toilet tissue, comprising a continuous roll of a plurality of severable sheets of the material disposed within the container is positioned within the container in such a manner that the end portion of the roll is adjacent to the access portion of the container. The individual sheets of the paper product are dispensed from the container by pulling the most inner-most sheet of the paper product from the inside of the roll through the access portion of the container.
Doyle et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,047, similarly to Ritchie, also disclose a container for removing from one end thereof, containing an opening, a longitudinally folded pre-moistened web of material comprised of a number of severable members, such as premoistened towelettes.
Hansen, U.S. Pat. No. 3,523,653, also discloses a container enabling the removal of individual members from a continuous roll of severable members through an opening in the middle of the container in such a way that the individual members are removed from the end of the rolled-up roll of the members.
Ellison, British Patent Specification No. 1,325,923, discloses a device for dispensing thin, flexible plastic film articles detachably joined in a series as a continuous stoved length. The articles are, e.g., plastic bags, and they are dispensed by unwinding a roll of the articles from the outside of the roll, flattening a continuous length of the articles and passing them over a series of rollers to a downstream surface delivery means.
In most of the patents and publications discussed above, the functions of a holding container and a dispensing unit were combined within a single package. However, in some practical applications, it is desirable to separate the two functions from each other. For example, in food supermarkets, certain plastic bags, commonly referred to in the trade as "wet bags" or "food bags", are used to contain products which, because of refrigeration or freezing, produce condensate moisture on the exterior thereof. Such products are inserted into the wet bags prior to the deposition thereof into a grocery sack to prevent direct contact of the potentially wet surface of the product with other products in the grocery sack. Normally, a roll of such bags is stored in a location under the counter of the check-out station, or behind the check-out station, and the check-out clerk must repetitiously bend to reach for and remove each bag from the container holding it under the counter. Such a repetitious bending motion is tiring, cumbersome and inconvenient.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to separate the function of the storage of a continuous roll of severable individual members from the function of dispensing such severable members from each other at a remote location.
Additional objects of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description and the appended claims.